Hydrocarbon resins are widely useful in a variety of applications, including as modifiers in polymeric systems, or as additives in adhesives, rubber, hot melt coatings, printing inks, flooring materials, and other systems. In many applications, selection of a hydrocarbon resin having specific properties may be important in order to ensure compatibility of the resin with the other components and/or in order to produce a polymeric system having a desired thermal stability, range of mechanical properties, and/or degree of processability. For example, in some applications, resins having a high softening point with narrow molecular weight distribution may be required. In the past, this type of resin was often produced via copolymerization of a plurality of petroleum compounds, such as those components of cracked petroleum distillate, turpentine fractions from natural product distillation, coal tar C10 olefins, and/or pure aromatic monomers resulting from Friedel-Crafts reactions of aromatic compounds. Styrene is a less expensive and more available pure monomer. It is, however, difficult to produce a homopolymer of styrene having a desired high softening point with reasonably low z-average molecular weight and narrow polydispersity.
Thus, a need exists for a hydrocarbon-based resin having a narrow molecular weight distribution, a low z-average molecular weight, and a high softening point. The resin should be widely applicable and useful in a number of end use applications, including, for example, as a tackifier in adhesive compositions.